Super Pixel Smash Review

Super Pixel Smash is yet another very basic-seeming VR sportsball game, in this case using said ball to smash blocks à la Atari classic Breakout. It’s perfectly functional, and I’ve had no problems trying to play it. It’s just so boring. This is one of my biggest hold ups on the Vive. For every interesting or enthralling game like Hotdogs, Horseshoes and Hand grenades there’s at least 10 very basic “throw / hit the ball” games.

Now, Super Pixel Smash is by no means a horrible game. Controls-wise it’s perfectly fine, but this may be more due to the Vive’s excellent controllers than anything else. I do like the retro inspired graphics quite a lot, and the clashing colours really pop and look awesome together. It looks like (and I assume this was intentional?) what the late 80s thought Virtual Reality was gonna look like. Think Lawnmower Man.

As for gameplay, it’s as basic as it gets: hit the ball, break the blocks. Okay, it’s not that simple. Some of the blocks are special, with multi-ball pickups, blocks that knock out entire rows, and other semi-interesting pickups. There are also the “Death Blocks” that, if hit, will stop your current combo. This makes Super Pixel Smash more of a score-attack game than Breakout, where the focus was on smashing all the blocks.

Things get a bit more interesting in the bonus stage, where the blocks are laid out at all 360 degrees around you, and you can just smash the ball and watch it careen around the room. It’s a lot of fun, although I have no idea how to get it. I actually wish the game was like that all the time.

And that’s it, really. One stage, limited music selection (it is pretty awesome music though), a handful of powerups and a single bonus stage. This review has taken me way longer to write than I would have believed, as I’m struggling to think of anything noteworthy to say, or anything that could become a decent “box quote”, for want of a better word. The best I could up with is, “it works”.

Then again, honestly, you could buy this game, see all it has and be well within Steam’s refund time, so you’re really not risking anything by trying it.

“I’m struggling to think of anything noteworthy to say, or anything that could become a decent “box quote”, for want of a better word. The best I could up with is, “it works”.”

Score: 50/100

[A copy of the game was provided by the developer or publisher for the purpose of this review.]

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